Insensitive
by CaptainInappropriate
Summary: S1, postAJBAC, AU. A young experimental soldier escapes Manticore and searches for clues to a memory she can't quite piece together. Logan, with the help of the escaped X5's, plans an attack in memory of Max. Implied ML, R&R Please!
1. Chapter 1

Insensitive

**Summary**: S1 only, picks up immediately after AJBAC. A young experimental soldier escapes Manticore and searches for clues to a memory she can't quite recall. Logan, with the help of the escaped X5's, plans an attack in memory of Max.

**Pairing**: ML only! The way it should be!

**Rating**: M... just in case.

**Notes**: All this MA around here is making me crazy! ;-) I started this story years ago, but never actually did anything with it. Now, with a genuine interest in biology and genetics, I've found a way to make it realistic, and I'm really excited to get it going! **Please PLEASE review** and let me know how it's going!

Chapter 1:

Nobody Knows

Manticore wasn't just about embryonic gene therapy, or creating perfect specimens and having them carried to term by surrogate mothers. There was a whole separate department for altering the DNA of average human bodies, and some were more successful than others.

Around 1995, a team of scientists discovered that a gene in the body known as SCN9A was responsible for perception of pain, and the absence of this gene caused a disease known as CIPA. Manticore was enthralled to knock pain out of the formula, and started experiments immediately. In multiple cases, overheating caused death within months, in other cases, the experiment was rendered useless due to repeated and unavoidable injury.

After fourteen years, a female child found alone in Cheyenne, Wyoming just days after the pulse was taken to Manticore and underwent gene therapy to become the perfect pain free soldier. Following the recovery and long, extensive tests, the child was the equal to an X5 while at the same time able to endure the elements, and all forms of physical pain. After discovering an absence of sensation in the hands, the soldier had changes made to the somatic sensory system, enhancing the sense of touch, leaving her with such abilities as reading a sheet of paper by running her hands across the indentations from a pen.

Colonel Lydecker, distraught after losing a dozen of his prize X5's, became the sole commander for the soldier, who was known of as Soldier 0 in place of a designation or barcode.

Thirteen years in Manticore later, with her commanding officer on the run, Soldier 0 was on sentry duty for X5-452 when she decided to leave Manticore. Due to the lack of command over her at the time, she merely walked into the outside training area, hopped the fence, and was gone. The only thing that stuck with her through her 'programming' and 'conditioning' was two names, Jo and Marty. She had no idea what either of the name meant, but decided that Jo would be better fitting for herself than Soldier 0 or Marty.

Days later, in Seattle, Jo looked up at a high rise in front of her and let out a long breath. It was almost as hard to get to Seattle as it was to figure out what she was coming for. She stood there, in the middle of the sidewalk for several long minutes, letting the people walk around her without noticing them. The front door seemed too easy, she was sure she needed to sneak in the back, or climb up the side...

But she was trying to appear normal. That was proving to be difficult. Being both the prized possession of Lydecker, and the youngest soldier at her level, Jo had never been on a mission outside of Manticore. The world was truly new to her.

X5-452 had been repeating a name in her sleep for days. 'Logan'. Jo recognized the name. She had no idea how, but she knew that 'Logan' was something important to her, and knew that 452 had come from Seattle, so she set out for some random 'Logan' in Washington. She had been in Manticore since she was about 2, no one knew exactly how old she was at the time of the pulse. .

Besides, her CO had gone rogue, so why didn't she?

Out of the corner of her eye she saw a tall man walk with his head down towards her, making his way towards the front door. Her heart skipped a beat- she was SURE this was him. This was Logan.

Logan was aware that everyone he had spoken to in the last 3 weeks was strongly suggesting that he start looking over his shoulder... or at least taking his eyes off of his feet. But he couldn't. Everyone he looked at looked like Max. And he couldn't handle that.

He made his way into the building, not noticing Jo at all, entered the elevator and finally looked up expecting to see someone staring at him. He was fairly certain he had been followed through the lobby, but no one was there.

In the lobby, Jo pressed her back against a wall near the reception desk, and peeked around the corner and saw that the highest floor was highlighted on the elevator. She rolled her eyes. Of course- it couldn't be on the second floor, that'd be too easy. She saw the door to the stairwell just down the hall and sighed before leaving her spot.

Jo stopped on the last stair and smoothed her hair before slightly opening the door. She could see Logan just opening the door to his penthouse. Leaving the stairwell, Jo silently and slowly made her way towards his door, noticing the door handle turning when she was only half way there.

She frowned and shot forwards, ending up sitting next to his door with her knees pulled up to her chest before the door was even opened. Jo held her breath and looked up at him, still deciding on a plan.

Logan stuck his head out into the hallway, expecting to see anything but a young girl on the floor. "Can I help you?" He asked, and all but scoffed at her.

Jo fought the urge to roll her eyes at him. He was incredibly welcoming. "Um..." She said and stood up nervously, brushing off her blue jeans as she went.

Logan looked at her, straight brown hair, blue eyes, a black coat and a pair of jeans that obviously weren't hers... Something seemed familiar, but also a little alarming about her. "Who are you?"

Jo let out a falsely nervous laugh. "I was hoping..." She cleared her throat and shoved her hands in her pockets. "You'd help me with that."

Logan stepped the rest of the way out of his apartment and stared at her, unbelieving. There was no way he was going to let her in his house. Hell, she was probably some Manticore assassin sent to do him off.

Jo raised an eyebrow and bit her bottom lip, recognizing Logan's expression. "I... don't necessarily remember the last few years...but, I heard your name... and I had to find you. My- my name is Jo."

That was mostly true. She really didn't know why she had run off to find him. She wanted to get killed, probably, because that's what was going to happen. Jo also didn't know how she knew his name, and she only knew his first name. But after she made her way to Seattle, and caught a glimpse of him in a crowd, she knew she had to talk to him.

"You heard my name." He said with disbelief in his tone. "Who'd you hear my name from?"

"Well, that's the thing. I heard someone who had been in Seattle say 'Logan' and... started having all this..." Jo removed her hands from her pockets and held them out, searching for her words. "Déjà vu stuff... I guess."

"That's pretty far fetched." Logan said, crossing his arms over his chest, looking down at her menacingly.

Jo cocked an eyebrow and was about to open her mouth to shoot back a remark when the hairs on her neck stood up, and she turned around to see someone standing at the end of the hallway, mirroring Logan's position. She saw his face, and she spun back around with wide eyes and looked at the floor beside Logan's feet. That was 712... how did he get out?

"Problem?" The man asked Logan, and Jo waited for him to reveal who she was.

"Not sure yet." Logan answered and looked down at Jo once again. She looked around the floor in front of her then back up at Logan and gave him a tight smile. "I have a visitor that says she knows my name, but doesn't remember who she is."

The man walked down the hallway and placed a hand on Jo's shoulder to turn her towards him, 'This was a really short lived trip.' She thought to herself before giving him a sideways grin.

"Well she looks innocent enough. Let her in."

Jo raised both eyebrows and cocked her head to the side as she was ushered into the penthouse.

"I'm Krit. And you are?"

"Krit?" Jo repeated, confused. No one at Manticore gave each other names... that she knew of. That's why she still had to go around being called Soldier 0

He grinned and shook his head. "That's me, little girl, what's your name?"

Jo stared, dumbfounded, at 'Krit'. Was this a rogue X5? There had been rumors that all the X5's had clones after X5-493 came back dead, and X5-452 was captured. Jo knew the designations of all the escaped soldiers, and knew that they were 1 off of most of the contingent in the west ward...

"Name?" Krit asked again. Was this 711?

"Jo." She spit out, pulling herself out of her daze. "Jo, my name is Jo." She pasted on a smile and allowed herself to be led into a great room of sorts, full of people. Jo looked from face to face, now recognizing them all as X5 rogues.

A small part of her feared for her safety, but an even smaller part of her, the part that still strived to impress Lydecker no matter how hard she fought it, was almost proud. But then again, Lydecker had turned against Manticore and had lad an attack...

Jo bit her lip and looked up at Logan. What exactly had she just found?

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Alrighty, more coming soon, lemme know how it is!


	2. Chapter 2

Insensitive

**Summary**: S1 only, picks up immediately after AJBAC. A young experimental soldier escapes Manticore and searches for clues to a memory she can't quite recall. Logan, with the help of the escaped X5's, plans an attack in memory of Max.

**Pairing**: Eventual ML

**Rating**: ... just in case.

**Notes**: I haven't updated this in years...I surely hope to finish it, it's been a completed story only in my mind since before it was ever started.

**Chapter 2**

Jo was trained well enough to recognize the strategic layout of the soldiers in front of her, even as they all put forth their best effort to appear relaxed. The tall female with long, ash brown curls, Johndy, as she was introduced, leaned against the island in Logan's lavish kitchen, a hand on her hip and an elbow on the marble countertop. Her impassive face and the side of her cheek resting in her hand were doing well to hide the fact that she was directly between Jo and the exit back to the living room, and essentially the door to the apartment. Across from her another female with slick, pin-straight, ice blonde hair, who called herself Syl seemed to relax in a low backed bar chair. Try as she might to seem harmless, the set of her jaw and her fingers curling around the end of her armrests gave away her weariness just as effectively as the fact that she barely touched the seat of the stool as if ready to pounce. Behind her was a picturesque window with a lovely scene of the SoDo skyline at dusk, another escape.

Zane was the last X5 to meet Jo, and he blatantly radiated distrust for the convenient circumstances of the visit. He stood with bulging muscles stretching the fabric of his espresso tee-shirt as he crossed his arms over his chest. His charge was obvious: he stood directly to the left of Logan, who was preparing sandwiches at the island.

Jo took a moment to both consider the largest soldier in the room at the same time as she made up another lie and added it to her mental file cabinet, remembering to keep all these stories straight. Zane was the only Manticore soldier that Jo had ever seen that seemed an obvious threat- of the X-Series, anyhow. Most were lithe, quiet, calculating, with surprise being one of their biggest assets. Zane more resembled one of the bulky, block-headed guards outside of the administrators' offices in the quiet, professional wing of Manticore. Had that been intentional? Was it an influence of being on the outside? Had he found something synthetic to make his build more daunting? That would be superfluous, for he had everything he needed etched into his genes.

Jo noticed Logan pause in cutting the tomatoes for their early supper, which meant every set of eyes were on her now. She instantly regretted her wandering thoughts, recognizing the danger in taking a moment too long to answer the question. "Montana, I think," she murmured, painting a confused expression on her face. It was easy to look vulnerable, she had found, especially since she looked much younger than she was, and acted much older than she seemed. "Only, the first sign I passed was one leading to Missoula."

Logan went back to his task, no emotions on his face as he accepted Jo's answer to where the mysterious farm she had randomly woken up on was located.

Krit, the only X5 to have no apparent assignment in the silent defensive maneuver happening in front of Jo's eyes, leaned all the way back in his chair where he sat directly across from her at a small breakfast table and clasped his hands behind his head. "That's hard to believe, Jo." He said with a grin. Despite the feeling of being surrounded by aggressive opponents, Jo _liked_ Krit.

"It's hard to live," she muttered, lowering her eyes to the table. She had intentionally lowered her voice to the point where most anyone wouldn't hear her, she was certain Logan hadn't, but had no doubt that every rogue in the room had.

Every fiber of her being was alive, tingling as she remembered ways to make herself seem as harmless as possible. Her posture was poor with her back slumped, her hands stuffed in between her knees, and her feet crossed. Her chair was pulled as far towards the breakfast table as was comfortable, and though she didn't want to seem like she was hiding anything, her shoulder length brown hair was hanging around the sides of her face, at times completely blocking her view of either Johndy or Syl. She figured the rogues had mentally checked each and every one of these things as a list of signs of an oncoming escape.

Jo moved her hand from under the tabletop to tuck her hair behind her left ear, and pretended to not see Zane flinch lean a fraction of an inch closer, hovering over the countertop where Logan had just finished the sandwiches. Johndy noticed the movement as well, and rolled her eyes as she pushed herself off the island and walked over the take the third chair at the table, between Krit and Jo, facing the seat that Logan would take after the meal was dispersed.

"Zane," Johndy said in a bored tone, leaning back in her chair and crossing her feet even though her 'brother' grunted out a sound of displeasure. "The girl's obviously not on the offensive. And even if she were, she's in a room with four of us and no apparent back up. Give it a rest, sit your ass down, and eat before I take your share." The entire speech was given without eye contact, and a slick grin.

Taking the 'four of us' bit as another cue, Jo made quick work of intentionally moving her eyes to each of them, then donned a confused expression after coming to the conclusion that there were indeed five other people in the room. Krit seemed to appreciate the act, and started eating his meal as Logan took his seat.

Logan handed Jo a plate with two sandwiches and healthy serving of coleslaw and locked his eyes with hers. "I'd just like to know how you found me, I can't even fathom how many men named Logan are in this area- even on this block."

"Well," Jo started meekly, lifting a hand to pick at the crust of her sandwich. Her stomach nearly clawed itself out of her body in want of the food in front of her, but she was trying to act overly emotional. Willing tears (tears! Lydecker would be so disappointed...) to well up in her eyes, she rubbed at her cheek and clicked together new lies to add to her story. "It was..." she swallowed, straightened and kept her eyes glued to her food as her hands retreated back under the table. "I made it to that town, Missoula, and I got caught trying to get into a car for a coat. I told the men in the uniforms that I thought it was my parent's car and was just trying to get in so they'd know where to find me at the crowded store." Lying and seeming vulnerable was way too easy. "They took me to their office and there was a guy chained to a bench inside where they made me wait. He was... he was weird. I don't think he actually saw me, but he kept looking at me and telling me that Logan owed him money, and that this was all Logan's fault."

Krit had stopped to listen with his sandwich halfway between the plate and his mouth and half squinted one eye as he was trying to decide if this story was believable or not. The girl sounded so young, but she looked a bit older- thirteen, maybe? fourteen at most? But, he supposed, if she had been locked up in some sort of convent or cult hideout, she might very well have been as naive as she was acting.

"After a while," Jo continued, her brow furrowing as she pretended to remember something that had happened a few weeks in the past. "He started to make more sense. A lady," she grinned, "A mean lady came up and started asking him questions. He said he was from Seattle and that he had been in...Spokane," she purposely mispronounced the name and trailed off, her eyes glazing over and her hand making its way up to her mouth to chew on her nails.

"That still doesn't explain how you found _this_ Logan." Zane ground out from his previous spot, his food untouched even though he had glanced down at the plate several times during the story.

Jo made the motions of snapping out of a distraction, and adjusted herself in her seat, sitting on her hands, hoping the position looked natural as she wouldn't be able to feel any pain if she were hurting herself. "I found him in a phone book in Spokane." She made eye contact with Zane, and didn't have to pretend to feel uncomfortable with the connection before quickly looking away. She looked at Logan, himself. "I went down the list of Logans in greater Seattle and saw Logan Cale. The phone number listed was wrong, but the address led me here."

Logan and Krit looked confused, and Zane's eyes nearly sparkled as he smiled and dropped his arms to stand straight. Jo was genuinely confused as to what mistake she had made in this part of the story- it was completely true. She had holed up in a store that looked like it had been a fairly large mailing center before being abandoned and sacked. There was an entire room filled with stacks and stacks of phonebooks for the entire state in their respective regions dated from 2010 back to 2000. Some were torn, some missing, some were soiled and chewed by rats, and more than one had been shredded to serve as a crow's nest. Some of the thin pages tore as she turned them and some of them were illegible with smeared ink that stained Jo's hands for days afterwards.

The book that had finally held up long enough for Jo to target Logan Cale as the most familiar name had a cracked spine and split into several pieces before she found her prize. "What?" She asked Krit, as he seemed the least threatening at the point even though she knew in the long run Logan would never be as dangerous as the nicest X5.

"Your story doesn't hold up. Logan's not listed, there aren't any phonebooks anymore, and they're not sorted by first name." Zane listed off in a gruff voice, his smile disappeared and his customary frown and crossed-armed stature returned.

"Well," Jo made a movement to reach for her pocket, but froze when everyone but Logan came to attention and moved closer to her. All in a fraction of a second, Zane put his hands on the counter as if he planned to jump over it, Krit sat up straight and dropped his sandwich, Syl's barstool skidded back a few inches as she leapt to her feet, and Johndy's right hand shot out to grip Jo's left wrist.

Jo's heart rate increased substantially and though her mind was trained to stay calm in a situation like this when it was simulated in Manticore, it was a different beast entirely to be in such company. She didn't have to try very hard to allow the color to drain from her face and as she slid her eyes to Johndy's white knuckled grip. Jo knew enough about her desensitized body to recognize the painless throbbing of occluded vessels and the involuntary retraction of her joints to know this would be painful. She made a small gasp that shamefully squeaked as well and tensed her body against the restraint, raising her right hand with an open palm to signal surrender.

"Johndy!" Logan scolded, only sounding half concerned, as if he didn't really care whether she let go or not.

She chose not, and kept her eyes glued to Jo's other hand, "Careful there, girlie, what're you reaching for?" Johndy asked, her tone a sharp contrast to her speech to Zane about how harmless Jo was just moments before.

Jo made a fast decision to not answer, letting her right hand quiver with the adrenaline that she was usually so good at controlling as she panted out ragged breaths in response to both the situation and the fake pain induced by Johndy's hand. She let herself jump and turn in her seat slightly as Syl approached from behind her, feeling more pressure on her wrist. Jo found pretending to be in pain was much more difficult then pretending to be suffering from amnesia, and regretted overlooking this point. She snapped her attention back to her own hand and tilted her body downward to try and make the angle between her hand and her arm more natural.

"Front or back pocket?" Krit asked, still in a gentle tone, but also still at full attention, his eyes full of caution.

Jo panted, whimpered, and looked up to him. "Front," she whispered after a moment, forcing her eyes to take on a terrified tint. This was something she _had_ practiced in reflection of the windows on one of the busses she had taken to get to Seattle.

Syl approached slowly, her left arm guarding her body as her right snaked under the table and into Jo's pocket. Jo couldn't quite keep her still raised right hand from curling into a fist at the foreign feeling of someone else's hands that close to her body, her hypersensitive skin protesting in an strange way, the feeling of denim being made that much tighter around her thighs. Syl, of course, took the motion as a threat and snapped her left hand forward and grabbed the fist. A few of the knuckles popped under the pressure and Jo allowed herself to cry out, but she didn't recognize the feeling of a snapped bone.

Syl's right hand produced a plastic bag with the torn out piece of phonebook paper inside, clear plastic packaging tape stuck over the important, circled name to keep the ink from running. She tossed it to Logan and he read it carefully.

True enough, there was his name, listed alphabetically by first name and circled with blue ink. It was a reverse-look-up book, pre-pulse but only just, as he had only had the penthouse for a few months before the destruction of these kinds of records. But apparently it was long enough for him to be listed. He'd certainly have to take this into consideration to increase his security with Eyes Only. If this young, apparently clueless girl found him...

"Let her go," he murmured, smoothing the paper through the clear plastic bag. "She's telling the truth."

_To Be Continued…_

...

AN: I know nothing really happened in this story, but to be honest, I'm trying to work my way back into writing and just got on a roll. It's been years and years since I wrote and rather than having a sudden return of a muse, I'm simply forcing myself to write by assigning myself things to work on. I'm sorry if it's not satisfactory, I'm just happy to have something presentable enough to post, and I sincerely hope it's entertaining for you at the same time.


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